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The Murder of Sandra Birchmore- Part 2

·1 hr 13 min·4 clips

Farwell asked Sandra to role-play as a 14-year-old during a later sexual encounter.

1. This Feels Criminal: A True Crime Podcast covers The Murder of Sandra Birchmore- Part 2 and follows the aftermath of Sandra Birchmore's death. 2. Hosts Emma and Christine frame the case, and listener Madison is credited for writing up the episode. 3. The episode asks how Sandra Birchmore, Matthew Farwell, William Farwell, and Robert Divine were connected through police work, sex, and delayed investigations. 4. The hosts say Sandra told friends Matthew had been violent, then became 'super sweet' after learning she was pregnant with his baby. 5. They say that shift happened one week before her death and later connect it to an apartment search for places to stage a suicide. 6. Matthew Farwell signs a consent form for phone extraction and then uses his police-issued work phone to search whether deleted iMessages can be recovered by Cellebrite. 7. He also searches whether consent can be revoked in Massachusetts and then deletes both searches. 8. Trooper Nick Guarino extracts devices but reportedly finds no messages between Sandra and Matthew, while federal investigators later find almost 33,000 messages. 9. Guarino also extracted Sandra's laptop, her phone, and Farwell's devices, and the hosts note that he later had a 'kill me' hot-mic moment on the stand. 10. By February 24, Matthew Farwell is placed on paid leave pending an internal affairs investigation, and the hosts say he still has a wife while his case is unfolding. 11. The Boston Globe reports that a coworker met Farwell at a bar and said he admitted a sexual relationship with Sandra but seemed annoyed about police scrutiny rather than grieving her death. 12. By March 8, Farwell stops cooperating and refuses to give a DNA sample, and the hosts say troopers did not pursue a warrant at that point. 13. The Stoughton Police internal team reviews more than 50,000 pages and finds sexually graphic photos, videos, and Facebook messages involving William Farwell and Robert Divine. 14. William Farwell reportedly admits to having sex with Sandra and says she told him she was pregnant with his brother's child. 15. Robert Divine is tied to Facebook messages under the alias 'Marty Riggs,' and the hosts say he denied a personal relationship and threatened legal action in his resignation letter. 16. Ashley Bell tells the Boston Globe that Divine called her a 'knockout' when she was 12 and told her he would take her on a date when she was 18. 17. The tone is angry, conversational, and interruption-heavy, with the hosts stopping to react to details like deleted searches, consent, and police incompetence. 18. The format mixes recap, quoted documents, and host commentary, with repeated pivots to legal procedure and internal-investigation failures. 19. Listeners interested in Massachusetts true crime and police misconduct. 20. Skip if explicit case detail and procedural anger feel repetitive.

As heard by us

A blunt true-crime recap that ties grooming, federal scrutiny, and overlapping investigations into one tangled case.

This episode approaches the Sandra Birchmore murder case with real anger and momentum, keeping the attention on the yucky text messages, the sexual abuse of a child, and the grooming at the heart of the story.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want the Sandra Birchmore part-two follow-up that stays angry while it untangles the corruption and federal angles.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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